When can you get the COVID-19 vaccine in Dallas? It depends. But 500 health care providers are preparing

Before Catherine Troisi’s book club began discussing the finer point of “Becoming Duchess Goldblatt,” her fellow readers only wanted to know one thing. And it had nothing to do with the memorial of an 81-year-old social media personality.

Their main question was: When could they get the COVID-19 vaccine?

The infectious disease epidemiologist at UTHealth School of Public Health in Houston offered her friends a sober assessment: Their first shot at being inoculated wouldn’t be next week — but next year.

Based on federal guidelines, hospital workers will get the first doses along with elderly Americans in long-term care facilities, she told them.

“We don’t know after that,” she recalled saying. “We will find that developing the vaccine was easy compared to getting it into the arms of people.”

The unprecedented push to develop vaccines to stave off the coronavirus is entering a new phase that raises all sorts of questions and conundrums that can’t be answered in a laboratory.

Who is an essential worker? How should race, which has proven to have an outsized effect on how badly COVID-19 afflicts a person, be considered? What happens if no one — or everyone — shows up at the same time?

Just as the federal and state governments are leading the charge, Dallas-area public health and elected officials, business leaders and bureaucrats are working to create the infrastructure needed to vaccinate millions of North Texans, assuming the inoculations are approved on the federal level. They’re also busy conceiving information campaigns to ensure an orderly process.

It will be a “logistics nightmare,” Troisi said, adding that there are already worries of needle shortages. And personal protective equipment appears to be running low again. Each vaccine will have its own storage requirements and different doses.

But more is unknown than known. Among the problems left to be solved: finalizing the pecking list for the vaccine, creating systems that ensure folks don’t skip the line, and establishing a message that conveys both hope and a stern warning that mask wearing and physical distancing must continue.

As many as 500 Dallas County providers — including hospitals, local pharmacies and doctors’ offices — have signed up to vaccinate people. And yet, it’s still unclear when there will be enough vials to go around.

Dallas County and Parkland Health & Hospital System have also not ruled out massive vaccination efforts akin to drive-through testing. But they are taking a wait-and-see approach. They will defer to the private providers and pharmacies for the initial rollout, only setting up drive-through options if the demand is great enough, officials said.

“We have a model that we take pride in and that has worked,” said Vivian Johnson, Parkland’s senior vice president of clinical support services, who is helping organize the hospital’s vaccine plans. “If that opportunity exists, to help get access quicker, we’ll be able to set up.”

Dallas County’s health authority, Dr. Philip Huang, said he anticipates most people will be vaccinated through their primary care physician or a commercial pharmacy such as Kroger and Walgreens. CVS, which is also expected to be a distribution point, has announced a hiring spree to help vaccinate.